In the past, regarding the Jerry Sandusky scandal and Penn State, we have tried to be as mature and considerate as we possibly could be, because we are not sports preachers, at least not most of the time. We do not profess to be journalists, nor are we out to provide big scoops and breaking news. We’re just a couple of guys who like to present prominent sports stories and Kate Upton news with a touch of humor.

There is nothing funny about what Jerry Sandusky did, and with that there is nothing funny about the Freeh Report’s findings, released this morning. Sure, there were jokes to be made about the name Freeh Report, but we don’t have any jokes about what Sandusky is currently rotting in prison for. I don’t have much of a response to what the findings revealed about Joe Paterno, because it reaches far beyond “disappointing”. I also can’t bring myself to read the entire Freeh Report, because I’m a natural pessimist. I think this world is spiraling into chaos and I’d love to spend my last 150-160 years on this planet on an island. God knows what reading the entire report would do to my brain.

But you can read it if you’d like. All 250+ pages are available right here. If you’re a Penn State student, student-athlete, alumni, fan, and/or employee, you’re not going to like any of it. Nobody is going to like any of it. There will be outrage. There are already people calling for the NCAA to drop the death penalty hammer, Penn State to destroy Joe Paterno’s statue, and probably much worse.

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I will be the first to admit I was desperately skeptical about anything criticizing Joe Paterno when this scandal first came out. But this report really is the absolute proof I think a lot of Penn State alum and supporters needed to finally kill off our attempts at denial and make us realize how fucked things really were.

For what? For pointing out its dumb to economically cripple a region to punish people who were not involved?

I get that you want to send a strong message and show how seriously you take the issue, but the people responsible for this are A. in prison B. dead C. Soon to be in prison. Every person even marginally involved in the affair is never going to have a career in sports or academics again. The school has done a complete purge.

The Death Penalty makes no sense in the bounds of NCAA punishment, and its ridiculous to demand it simply because you want to show how serious you are.

Why not shut down the university and burn down State College? That will REALLY show them that what they did was wrong.

Penn State should be allowed to go to any and all bowls and BCS… However, the football program needs to be under strict nonprofit rules and revenue giving to victim rights organization and child abuse out reach. Kind of like how the tobacco companies have to pay for all the anti-smoking campaigns

PSU may not be getting the death penalty, but they are at least getting capped in the knees with the lead pipe of public opinion. If you were an 18 year-old 3, 4, or 5 star recruit, would you go to Pederast State University? Probably not. They are going to be Indiana-level bad at football in the coming years.

Can you justify the death penalty for Penn State on any grounds other than “I’m really mad you guys.”

Because here’s some news. We’re mad too. Fuck it, we’re madder than you. We were betrayed by someone we idolized. Our administration allowed children in our community to be hurt, and then they covered it up. We have a black mark on ourselves, our community, our shared history, everything.

And so what? You want to cripple an already impoverished reason for what? What do you gain other than a false sense of moral superiority?

Do you think punishing 100,000 innocent people makes up for what happened? Do you think doing this will somehow make it never happen again? That this will be some kind of deterrent?

Axissillian, the football program deserves the death penalty because they knowingly covered up Sandusky’s child raping ways for over a decade. Sure it sucks for the innocent people who are now denied having their university football being taken away, but, Penn State football was cool with having and trying to cover up having a child molester molesting children. The fact that Paterno is dead and was fired a few days after this incident happened should not matter in terms of punishment.

How did the football program cover it up? It’s not like this was common knowledge among team officials. It was known by one assistant coach, one coach, and the athletic coordinator.

I would understand demanding the death penalty if this was a concerted cover-up by the football program. If this was something widely known by officials and kept secret, you would be right. But this was not something that was known by the program. Hell, even the vice-provost under Spanier did not know about it. There was a cover-up by powerful people, but it was not a cover-up through the football program.

I mean, read the Freeh report. He specifically outlines that this was a failure of the university at an adminstrative level. This was high level university officials, unmonitored by the board, making a decision to handle a serious allegation internally.

Also, this is not about “losing our football.” This is about total economic devastation. The entire region is more or less held up by the university, and football is a big part of that. You are talking damage to State College, Lewistown, Altoona, Hollidaysburgh and any other city in the region.

These fans and alum were still supporting Joe Pa even though this guy CLEARLY raped children and Joe Pa knew.

If this report hadn’t came out they WOULD still be supporting him.

They deserve the Death Penalty, just like Sean Payton should have been fired. The head coach is responsible for his team/players/coaches. He knew and was a coward. This wouldn’t have been as big at 90% of the other schools in the nation.

Death penalty talk is ridiculous. It is not like Penn State athletes were having parties in the locker room this was not an NCAA incident this was a criminal incident and the black eye Penn State has will do more damage than anything the NCAA can throw down. My earlier comment has more to do with the fact that Penn State continued to profit for over 10+ years after covering up the first incident.

That former comment may be more emotional than rational because we are discussing the decisions of 5-6 people who not only covered up the crimes but profited from the cover ups and there doesn’t seem to be a punishment sever enough for those who profited from the cover up.

You still haven’t explained how punishing the team, which wasn’t involved, the current staff, which wasn’t involved, and the community, which wasn’t involved, is an effective or justified use of the Death Penalty.

USC, Ohio, Miami, SMU… all those had to do with NCAA violations. While I am sure that the NCAA should and does look down upon the rape of small children, they have no right to pass down judgment on this matter, that is for the courts.

I’d be more inclined to blame the school if there was more about the Board of Directors knowing and covering up and while I am angry about the cover-up my anger is reserved for Sandusky, Paterno, Schultz, Spanier and Curley. Largely because their Ol’ Boys network made Penn State a victim of this tragedy as well. Had the last 4 had balls enough to speak up in 1998 this would have been blown over and Penn would have had a small rough spot, but in this day and age were the internet never forgets this University is in major trouble. Have fun recruiting folks who are not legacies or die hard Pitt fans now. The actions of 1 man and the inaction of others has tarnished the perception of every diploma that has been or will be handed out.

The NCAA can bring the hammer, and has done so for much less at OSU, USC and even Boise State. Penn State will get sanctions, at the least. Probably not the death penalty, though, as it is a non-competitive infraction. SMU was paying players to pay for years, which results in a competitive advantage. This is different in that covering up for a sicko fuck pederast is morally repugnant, but does not effect competition.

They’ll get sanctioned. Probably no bowl games for a couple years, probation for 10 years so they’d better not slip up again, loss of scholarships, and fines. But no Death Penalty. There’s precedence here. Baylor hoops did a coverup, orchestrated by their head coach, for a murder and they didn’t get the Death Penalty.

Further clarification: The “lack of institutional control” rule places the obligation on coaches and athletic administrators to monitor the program for NCAA violations AND illegal activities by the players/staff. Basically, the administrators and coaches cannot play dumb and say “I didn’t know” or help to cover up criminal activity. This came up with the Baylor men’s basketball team when one ex-player killed an active player and the coach tried to distance himself from the ex-player and the crime. The NCAA can do what it wants with it. They probably won’t give out the Death Penalty because it killed SMU football. SMU got it for paying players for years and years, which directly affected competition. This doesn’t effect competition, so they will probably find that the legal system h as done enough.

The only big recovery I can see coming to Penn from this is if they man up and own up to this a new degree program designed for people wanting to go into abuse counseling and child psychology. If they run and hide from this it will always haunt the school.

Considering the amount of money students have already raised for victims of abuse, and the recommendations of the Freeh report, I think that is the direction PSU is going. The big feeling among current alumni and students right now is that the community and a university as a whole needs to step up and start repairing our reputation.

Axissillian, how in the world do you read the report and come to the conclusion that the Football program was “not involved” or “innocent”? The coaching staff and administration KNEW a man was raping children and not only did nothing, they took steps to hide it from the public *so they could continue to play football*. The Death Penalty is more appropriate in this case than it was for SMU, that’s for damn sure.

“after Sandusky was indicted on sex crimes charges, Penn State’s general counsel Cynthia Baldwin advised Spanier that it was a bad idea to appoint a body to investigate the school’s athletic programs. “If we do this, we will never get rid of this group,” Baldwin said. Even after it became clear that athletic department officials allowed Sandusky’s predation to continue, the school’s top legal mind was worried that Penn State’s sports teams would be subject to too much oversight.”

I just about tossed my cookies when he “retired”, only to be brought back for a bowl game.. Wait, sorry, The Alamo Bowl. And he brought a guest, that he raped. If the NCAA wants to start somewhere, that would be a great sorry.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go help my dad pack away his PSU Football gear.

Serious question: if Paterno felt that this shouldn’t tarnish the reputation of the university or the football program (written in a letter about a month before his death), what was he expecting to happen as an alternative? Everyone to just forget about it and move on? Because isn’t that exactly how this was treated when it was initially brought to light?

No matter if they get any penalties from the NCAA, they will always be remembered for what they did. This isn’t like paying your players or helping them cheat through their classes; they allowed this “person” (and I use that term loosely) to continue to prey on young boys and they showed that they were more concerned with protecting themselves and their school rather than protecting innocent children. That kind of damage will forever tarnish their school’s name.

Now that that’s out of the way, can the other schools in the Big 10 expel Penn State from the conference. I think this is one occation where Ohio State and Michigan might agree on something.